Fox News’s Melissa Francis Questions if Saudis Killed Missing Journalist: There Are Quieter Ways to Dispose of a Body

Fox News commentator Melissa Francis questioned if the Saudi government is actually behind the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish intelligence services believe was killed in Turkey by the gulf state regime.

She made the remarks during a Fox News segment today that began with judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano explaining why President Donald Trump’s remarks on the controversy are problematic.

“He’s basically saying, this didn’t happen here, why should we be concerned about it?” Napolitano said. “We should be concerned about it because of Khashoggi’s status, A, as a journalist, and B, as a lawful american resident, when the president says the king doesn’t know anything about it, the king is probably telling the truth but the president is asking the wrong person.”

“Can I just jump in for a second? Because you are assuming that the Saudis did it, and we don’t necessarily [know that],” Francis interjected. “There are so many quieter ways to dispose of someone if you wanted to, if you were Saudi assassins, that to do it this way either sends a message, or it isn’t what it appears to be. I’m just cautioning because it’s so obvious.”

Later in the segment, Francis elaborated on her skepticism about Saudi Arabia’s alleged involvement:

“We don’t know for sure what happened and I would say that Khashoggi has also been really critical of the Iranians, that we have — you know the Saudis are — they are among the gulf nations who have together tried to be moderate Arabs in the fight against radical Islam… They are trying to find a coalition that is more moderate that can help with the various crises we are having around the world. I don’t know if you want to jump to before we know what happened that, yes, if they are the ones that did it absolutely, but make sure we take a breath and make sure we know it’s them.”

Saudi Arabia has denied claims that they murdered Khashoggi, while Trump has publicly voiced his own skepticism regarding the regime’s involvement in the disappearance case.

“I don’t want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers,” Trump said while speaking to reporters today. “Who knows? We’re going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial.”